Tran Thanh directs a film that obviously aimed to please his audience, and considering its success so far, it is easy to say that he achieved his goal to the fullest. In that fashion, the movie begins as a comedy, offering laughs aplenty particularly through the behavior of the nosy and obnoxious neighbors as much as Duong’s womanizing ways, who does, however, finds his ‘master’ in the face of Mai. At the same time, there is a sensualism permeating the first part of the story, as presented through some erotic scenes (without significant nudity though) or the whole concept of the massage parlor that also moves towards the same, crowd pleasing paths.
For people who did watch “KFC”, which also got physical releases from Dekanalog and Spectrum, you might have thought that Le went too far, with the worms scene in particular being quite grotesque. Here, however, the Vietnamese filmmaker went much further, probably because he had a bigger budget in his hands (or maybe because he realized how to implement it better) coming up with a movie that starts in relatively tame fashion, but becomes more grotesque and more blood-soaked as time passes. In that fashion, by the third segment, the movie has become a b-movie slasher, reminding of similar productions from the US, retaining, though, the aforementioned avant-garde/meta level, a chaotic style of storytelling, and a sense of sensualism that eventually becomes part of the narrative through a lengthy and rather steamy sex scene.
Derek Nguyen in his debut directs a gothic thriller that thrives on its atmosphere, as it takes full advantage of the location, both in the baroque-gothic mansion and the eerie exterior, where the haunted location of the woods is exploited a much as possible. In that fashion, Sam Chase’s cinematography is one of the film’s best assets along with Jose Mari Pamintuan’s production design, with the two of them managing to highlight every corner of the setting in the most horrific way.
This rich amalgam of all the aforementioned elements works quite well throughout the film, benefitting the most by Pham Quoc Dung’s editing, with the change from drama to comedy and vice versa being well implemented. At the same time, there are moments that Ly Hai falls to the reef of forced sentimentalism, with the melodrama going too far. Furthermore, the movie would definitely benefit from a tighter ending, which would also bring the duration to something less than the somewhat excessive 139 minutes.
Le Binh Giang directs, writes, co-edits and produces a genuine splatter film, where onerousness seems to derive from every frame. In this fashion, the movie includes cannibalism, amputation and torture, kid violence, necrophilia, and even flesh-eating worms. Giang, however, managed to include some comic scenes, mocking multinational companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi, and KFC. A somewhat romantic scene with a couple riding on a motorcycle and the main theme, a romantic and nostalgic song, also move towards the same direction.
Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.
Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.
Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.
